Osterville, Hyannis East schools closed

The Barnstable School Committee voted last night to close two more elementary schools and relocate a district charter school, among cost-saving measures to close a $6 million shortfall.

JAKE BERRY

HYANNIS — The Barnstable School Committee voted last night to close two more elementary schools and relocate a district charter school, among other cost-saving measures designed to close a $6 million shortfall in next year's budget.

After nearly six weeks of deliberations, the school board voted to close Osterville Elementary and Hyannis East Elementary. The panel also voted to relocate the Marstons Mills East Horace Mann Charter School to the Hyannis East Elementary building on Bearse's Way.

Entering next year, the charter school, currently located on Osterville/West Barnstable Road, will host 365 students from throughout the town, while the former charter school building will serve as a traditional elementary school, hosting students and staff displaced from the Osterville school.

The decision, approved in a 4-1 vote, follows the school board's decision last week to close Cotuit-Marstons Mills Elementary School and move eighth-grade students to Barnstable High School, among other cost-saving measures.

"I would have liked to see all schools stay open, but that's not the reality," school committee member Debra Dagwan said before last night's vote. "But (Hyannis) is an area that needs a school. ... It's for the future of those children."

District Supt. Patricia Grenier had originally proposed closing Hyannis East and moving the charter school to Osterville Elementary, but public outcry over the fate of Hyannis' impoverished and minority students, drove the school committee to consider the charter school option. Not all members of the charter school community were happy with the alternative, however.

The charter school's board of trustees elected not to vote on the move earlier this week, opting instead to wait for more information about past Hyannis East health and safety inspections. And some charter school parents, teachers and staff expressed similar concerns last night.

The Hyannis East building flunked several air quality tests in 2005 and its principal relocated to another school because of allergies.

"All children deserve safe buildings," Osterville resident Melissa Caughey, the mother of one charter school student, said to a round of applause. "Let's review the information ... and put our children in schools that are safe."

Grenier disputed fears over Hyannis East's fitness, however. Since the 2005 air quality tests, the school has received more than $250,000 in repairs to its exhaust and ventilation systems, among other parts of the physical plant, and its in line for a new $350,000 heating unit, she said.

"There is nothing that says that building is sick, unhealthy or unsafe," she said.

Other community members suggested that, rather than closing any more schools, district administrators look to salaries, health care and other district programs to trim the budget. Grenier and other top school administrators will not receive raises this coming year, and there's not a lot of other places left to trim, she said.

The district's cost-saving measures also include up to 82 staff layoffs next year, Grenier said.

"There are a lot of folks talking about trimming the fat ... but here's where the fat is," school committee member Patrick Murphy said. "It's the buildings. We have more seats than we have children."

According to the district's full restructuring plan, the town's five elementary schools will serve students kindergarten through third grade. Fourth-graders will move to the Barnstable Horace Mann Charter School; sixth-graders will join seventh-graders at Barnstable Middle School; and eighth-graders will move to Barnstable High School, which will host eighth through 12th grades.